How Much & Often Should You Feed Fish? | Aquarium Care

Make sure your fish are well-fed and taken care of with these awesome aquarium products!

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You should feed your fish... Okay, this is where I can get in a lot of trouble because fish really do need to feed all day long. So, they would benefit from feeding two, three, or even four times a day - but very small feedings. Most people's schedule doesn't warrant that type of feeding. So, fish are usually okay with just being fed once a day. That's what most fish stores and most fish professionals would recommend simply because people tend to overfeed as well.

You could feed your fish one time a day. Feed them as much as they can eat in five minutes. What that means is you put a little bit of food in the tank. You could shut off the filter so the filter doesn't remove the fish food. And then if the fish eat all the food you could feed a little bit more. You do that up to five minutes and then stop.

I prefer to feed the fish again two to three times a day. It's just better on the fish's system. It's not as taxing on their gut. You don't just load them up with food for five minutes. Just give them one small pinch of food in the morning, once in the afternoon, and that's the best way for the tank and the best way for the fish.

But you can't overfeed. If you feed and you see leftover food, and you do that three times a day, you're going to really foul your water quickly. So don't overfeed.

And mix up the diet. It's very important to replicate the diet that the fish would eat in the wild. There are different types of fish out there. There are herbivorous fish. There are omnivorous fish. There are fish that just eat shrimp. There are fish that just eat algae - those are the herbivorous fish.

So you want to replicate because those fish need the vitamins associated with the types of food that they eat in the wild. When you buy the fish ask the people what types of food these fish need to eat. Typically you'd just do a well balanced diet.

Very rarely do you have a situation where the fish would be hurt from eating the wrong types of foods. One situation would be with African cichlids that only eat algae. If they eat too much protein they get bloated and they can actually die from it. It causes a lot of bacteria in their gut because they can't break down the foods.

For the most part, most tropical fish, even salt water fish, would benefit just from a wide variety of food. You can't go wrong with that.

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Make sure your fish are well-fed and taken care of with these awesome aquarium products!

Submersible Water Pump with 5 ft Tubing:
AquaClear, Fish Tank Filter
Fish Tank Plastic Plants and Cave Rock Decorations:
hygger Aquarium Gravel Cleaner:
Lighting Aquarium LED Light:

[richardcampbell]

ask 10 people this question, you'll get at least 8 different answers. sigh

[GrandRiserOfficial]

Damn, thanks for answering straight to the point, keep it simple, giving example and keeping the video short. VERY BENEFICIAL!

[zhjulie]

our fishes died when we fed them once a day, one even got some sickness and got totally bloated (dont know if it was from the food) but we had to kill it before it exploded lol... now we feed every couple days, it works well but i often wonder if they're half way starving...

[jungkookieee]

Ok I’m seeing a lot of doubts of how many times a day can I feed my fish or my fish tank:

They are tiny little starving creatures that in nature they eat every single time. So, I would recommend to feed your fish a little bunch of food in the morning, a little more at lunch and later again in dinner. That’s the best way to keep your fish satisfied. I have a fish tank with 9 fishes and I’m doing that and trust me it’s very fine. I feed them with flake food and “betta” like sphere food both of this mixed together and they eat it very well.

[carlalorch]

I give my goldfish live plants to graze on during the day. They stripped the leaves off and eat them. I give them green peas to eat, too.

[ErzaScarletDragneelTessArt]

I think you should specify the "type" of fish you are trying to feed four times a day. A fancy goldfish could die from eating too much too soon. One, it could pollute the water quickly- ammonia rises- causing hemorrhagic septicemia. Two, it can cause bloating- eating a lot of food-stuffing up their tiny compact intestine. Be careful on putting up these videos it may cost a lot of fishes lives.

[ajmamora]

I fed my fish with a 6 hrs. gap for example 8am in the morning then 4pm in the afternoon and last 10pm in the evening before to bed

[YazidHLH]

I agree with your way. 2 or 3 time a day but with a small portion.
I feed my fish on the morning, afternoon and before im bed. 😍

[gorackable]

So strange my local fish shop said feed every other day...

[lalalacey]

Thank you. I just changed my feeding habits over this video. Im new and im having problems from over feeding like those tiny white worms. Yep I've taken measures to get rid of them but got a few more days of vacuuming and water changes. I learned my lesson.

[husnainhussain]

Ive got a pond I put about 3 pinch of food I got too large fish asswell

[itz-cherry]

Thank you so much. I couldn’t learn this without you.

[skylnstudio]

When l fed my goldfish 2 times a day with less food they get sick (swim bladder) but when l change their food to sinking pallets and fed them once in a day l dont had any issues.I learned from my mistakes.

[learnearnlieswithin...]

Hi, thanks for ur info...Plz let me kbow how much Micro Pellets per fish ??

[karencarrillolopez]

if you feed twice a day does the 5 min. Rule apply or would it be like 2 min. Instead?
Thanks

[_R.T_]

I have 3 koi and 3 goldfish... and i give them pellet sized 1/2" diameter one. And i give them 18 morning and 12 evening. I think they are hungry... they eat all the water lilly leaves... and the added tadpoles... now i have pellwt size 2mm. Have to figure out how much., 🤷‍♀️

[stevefite]

I had a clown loach {Spot}, alone in a 15 gal tank, who lived for 25 years just getting Tetramin flakes twice a day. It was so long that I don't remember if he ever had other foods. He loved it and I didn't dare live foods which can introduce problems. Aquariums reach a magic level over time and, once you're there, fish just flourish. Just don't overfeed.

[MotivationalEmpowerOfficial]

I have 3 goldfish and I feed it in da morning evening and before I go to bed is that good for 3 gold fish

[jordanm]

every time I eat at home so do my fish. P.s I have some carnivourous fish that I feed my own frozen mixture of beef heart, sea bass, squid, paprika, a little seaweed and a multi vit. been doing this for few months now and the mix looks like it'll last year's, saving me $$$